Solenoid actuator device



July 22, 1969 ERlCKSCN ET AL 3,456,836

SOLENOID ACTUATOR DEVICE Filed April 15, 1 967 2 Sheets-Sheet .1

IN VENTUR5 0 WAQD L. EQ/CKSOA/ W/LL MM MC 641? X E.

3,456,836 SOLENOID ACTUATOR DEVICE Howard L. Erickson, Bensenville, and William R. McCarty, .lr., Skokie, 111., assignors to The Dole Valve Company, a corporation of Illinois Filed Apr. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 630,693 Int. Cl. B65d 43/26, 45/00 US. Cl. 220-35 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The field of art to which this invention pertains is a solenoid actuator device and in particular a solenoid device having a fixedly positioned core or pole piece and havign an externally mounted lever actuator for being magnetically attracted to the pole piece during the energization of the solenoid. The solenoid of the type employed in this invention may be utilized to actuate a lever or release arm of a snap acting spring biased cover for a soap dispensing unit or the like.

SUMMARY An important feature of this invention is the provision of a solenoid actuator device which is inexpensive to manufacture, which is trouble free in use, and which is designed to actuate a lever arm at a point remote from the solenoid core.

Another feature of the invention is the provision of a solenoid device having a fixed pole piece and having a bracket which is mounted about the solenoid and connected at one end to the pole piece and at the other end to a pivotally mounted lever actuator which is attracted to the pole piece during the energization of the solenoid.

An object of the invention is the provision of an efiicient means to provide a lifting action directly from the energization of a solenoid which is remote from the center or core of the solenoid.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a solenoid actuator device having a magnetically conductive pole piece and having a U-shaped bracket which extends around the solenoid and which is connected to the pole piece and which provides a continuous path for the sole noid flux during energization thereof.

A still further object of the invention is the provision for a dispenser unit having a cavity for holding a substance to be dispensed and having a snap action cover plate wherein the cover plate is held against the spring force of the dispenser by a ridge or abutment formed on the dispenser housing and wherein the lifting action of the lever actuator associated with the solenoid as described above is utilized to lift a portion of the snap cover plate mechanism to release the engagement of the cover plate with the ridge or abutment thereby allowing the cover late to snap into an opened position.

Other and further objects of this invention will be apatent Office 3,456,836 Patented July 22, 1969 parent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description and the annexed sheets of drawings which show several embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic view of a dishwasher or the like showing the environmental use of a dispensing unit having a solenoid device of the type claimed in this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top elevational view of a dispensing unit in accordance with the present invention showing the snap action door in a first operating position;

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view similar to FIGURE 2 and showing the snap action cover plate in a second position;

FIGURE 4 is an elevational view of the rear surface of the dispensing unit of the present invention showing the interaction of the lever arm of the dispenser and the lever actuator of the solenoid actuating device;

FIGURE 5 is a side view of the dispenser of the present invention showing in dotted lines certain detail of the solenoid and snap action dispensing mechanism of the present invention and having a portion thereof cut away to illustrate the inner structure of the dispensing device; and

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the solenoid actuator device of the present invention apart from its working environment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The dishwasher of FIGURE 1 has a standard cabinet 10 in which dishes and the like are contained during the washing cycle and which contains the washing mechanism. The cabinet 10 has a door 11 which is pivoted at a point 12 and which is opened in the usual manner to expose the contents of the cabinet 10 and to allow the insertion of a rack of dishes or the like into the container. The dispensing unit of the present invention is indicated generally by reference numeral 12 and is mounted to the inside surface of the washer door 11.

The dispensing unit 12 is more clearly viewed in FIG- URES 2 and 3. In particular, the unit 12 consists of a dispenser housing 13 having a first cavity 14 formed on the left thereof (FIGURE 2) and having a second cavity 15 formed on the right portion thereof (FIGURE 3).

The container 12 has a snap action cover plate 15 which is rotatably mounted about a push release button 16. The push release button 16 is connected to a pin which passes through the center of the dispenser and which engages a ring portion 17 of the snap action cover plate 15 to allow the cover plate 15a to be freely rotatable between the center pivot point and a circular track 18 formed at the periphery of the cavities 14 and 15.

The cover plate 15 occupies an angle extending between the edges 19 and 20 thereof. Stops 21 and 22 are provided to limit the movement of the cover plate to the angle included between the stops. It will be noted that in FIGURE 2 the cover plate is completely covering the cavity 15, and in FIGURE 3 the cover plate is completely covering the cavity 14. The cavities 14- and 15, of course, are separated by a partition which is formed directly beneath the edge 19 of the cover plate when in the position shown in FIGURE 2. Accordingly, either position of the cover plate, the one in FIGURE 2 or the one in FIGURE 3, will retain soap powder or the like within the covered cavity while the other cavity may be exposed to a water spray as is usual in dishwasher machines.

Referring to FIGURES 4 and 5 together, the push button 16 is connected to a shaft 23 which extends directly through the dispenser container and which is connected to a lever arm 24. Accordingly, the lever arm 24 and the cover plate a rotate together, the lever arm being connected to the shaft 23 at a pin 25. As will be understood the connection of the lever arm 24 to the shaft 23 is a loose connection via the pin 25 so as to allow the lever arm to be rockable relative to the pin 23.

A coil spring 26 is operably connected between the housing of the dispenser 12 at a point 27 and at the lever arm at a point 28. Therefore, the spring 26 biases the cover plate into the position shown in FIGURE 3. Accordingly, the cover plate must be forceably rotated from the position shown in FIGURE 3 to reach the position shown in FIGURE 2. When this forceable rotation is accomplished, means must be provided to hold the cover plate in the position shown in FIGURE 2. Such a means is provided in this structure and is ShOWn in FIGURE 4. In particular, the rear surface 29 of the dispenser unit has a circular track 30 within which the lever arm 24 can rotate during the rotation of the cover plate 15a. The track 30, however, is provided with an abutment 31 which is formed by the end face of an inclined plane or ramp 32. A second abutment 33 is provided oppositely of the abutment 31 and a niche is formed between the abutment. As the lever arm is rotated about the track 38, the arm is caused to ride up the ramp 32 and is then drawn into the niche formed between the abutments 31 and 33 by the tension of the spring 26. It is noted that the spring 26 has both a rotary tension to bias the snap action door 15a and a longitudinal tension tending to move the lever arm inwardly toward the rear surface of the container.

When the snap acting door 15a has been rotated from the position shown in FIGURE 3 to the position shown in FIGURE 2, the lever arm 24 occupies the position shown in FIGURE 4 and is held tightly against the abutment 31 due to the rotary tension of the spring 26. The lever arm 24 has a tab portion 34 extending rearwardly thereof and which is held beneath a plate 35 which limits the rocking movement of the lever arm 24.

Once the lever arm 24 is in the position shown in FIG- URE 4, means must be provided to lift the lever arm out of the engagement with the abutment 31 to release the door 15a from the position shown in FIGURE 2 to the position shown in FIGURE 3. Once the lever arm 24 is released from engagement at the abutment 31, the door will swing to the position shown in FIGURE 3.

Two means are provided in the dispenser to release the lever arm 24 from its engagement at the abutment 31. First, is the use of the button 16 which when pushed lifts the lever arm upwardly off the rear surface of the dispenser and raises the end or contact portion 36 of the lever arm out of engagement with the abutment 31. This releases the lever arm and allows the lever arm and cover plate to swing in a clockwise direction (FIGURE 4), thereby shifting the position of the cover plate 15a from that shown in FIGURE 2 to that shown in FIGURE 3.

The second means for releasing the lever arm 24 is through a solenoid actuating device 37. The solenoid actuating device 37 is mounted to the dispenser at a pair of connectors 38 and 39 or the like. The solenoid 37 is energized through a pair of contacts 40 and 41, and energization of the solenoid actuates a lever actuator 42 which lifts the contact portion 36 of the lever arm and accordingly releases the lever arm and permits the Swinging of the snap action cover plate.

The solenoid actuating device is best viewed in FIG- URE 6.

The solenoid actuating device 37 comprises a solenoid winding 42 which is encapsulated in a housing 43. The housing 43 is formed of plastic or other non-magnetically conductive material and defines an opening 44 extending through the center of the solenoid. The opening 44 has a pole piece 45 which is formed of'a mangetically conductive material fixedly disposed therein. The pole piece has a collar 46 which abuts the upper face 47 of the encapsulating housing 43, and a bracket 48 is fitted against a shoulder 49 of the pole piece at the opposite end thereof. The pole piece 45 is then spun over to hold the pole piece in a fixed position within the opening 44. This also holds the bracket 48 in a firm position relative to the solenoid housing 43.

The bracket 48 extends around the solenoid Winding 42 as at 49 to a point 50 which is adjacent the upper end of the pole piece 45 as seen in FIGURE 6. The upper end 50 of the bracket 48 has a slot 51 formed therein, and a lever actuator 52 pivotally disposed or mounted within the slot 51. The actuator 52 has a contact portion 53 and an opposite end portion 54 which portions pivot about the fulcrum provided by the slot 51 in the bracket 48. The end portion 54 of the lever actuator has an opening 55 for receiving a first end 56 of a spring 57. The opposite end 58 of the spring 57 is connected to a support portion 59 of the bracket 48 shown within a similar opening 60.

The upper end portion 61 of the pole piece 45 extends above the upper surface 47 of the solenoid housing 43, and the energization of the solenoid causes the pole piece to be magnetically attractive to the contact portion 53 of the lever actuation 52. Accordingly, the lever actuator responds to energization of the solenoid by pivoting from the position shown by the dotted lines at 62 to the position shown in solid lines in FIGURE 6. This pivotal movement of the lever actuator provides an actuation means at the end portion 54 of the actuator 52. As is shown in FIG- URE 5, the end portion 54 of the lever actuator is disposed directly beneath the contact portion 36 of the lever arm 24. Hence, the pivotal movement of the lever actuator 52 will cause the end portion 54 thereof to swing upwardly to contact the contact portion 36 of the lever arm, elevate the lever arm above the abutment 31 of the dispenser container and allow the lever arm 24 and snap action cover plate 15a to swing from the position shown in FIGURE 2 to the position shown in FIGURE 3.

It will be noted that no complicated linkages, movable pole pieces or other assemblies are required to develop the force for actuating the lever arm 24. Rather, the force is developed directly from the energization of the solenoid and the pivotal action of the lever arm 52. As shown in FIGURE 6, the pole piece 45 is connected directly to the bracket 48 to form a complete closed path for the magnetic flux during the energization of the solenoid. The closed path is through the bracket 48, and the lever actuator 52 to the upper portion 61 of the pole piece 45.

We claim:

1. A dispensing unit comprising:

a container having a cavity for holding a substance to be dispensed and cover means for holding the substance within the cavity,

said cover being movable between an open and a closed portion and being spring biased into an open position,

catch means holding the cover in a closed position against the said spring bias,

a solenoid actuator including:

a solenoid winding and a housing encapsulating the winding,

said winding and associated housing forming an opening substantially centrally of the winding,

a magnetically conductive pole piece mounted within said opening,

bracket means disposed externally of and adjacent to one end of the solenoid winding,

a lever actuator pivotally mounted at said bracket means and having a contact portion thereof gen erally adjacent to and overlying one end of said pole piece,

said contact portion being movable on said bracket generally toward and away from said one end of the pole piece,

means biasing said contact portion of said lever actuator generally away from said pole piece,

means to energize the solenoid thereby to move the contact portion of the lever actuator generally toward said pole piece, and

said lever actuator engaging said catch means and releasing the same upon energization of said solenoid.

2. A dispensing unit in accordance with claim 1 wherein said catch means comprises an abutment formed on the container and a lever arm attached to the cover means and retained against the abutment by the spring bias of the cover.

3. A dispensing unit in accordance with claim 2 wherein said lever actuator is pivoted at a point substantially intermediate the ends thereof and wherein the attraction of the contact portion thereof said one end of the pole piece during the energization of the solenoid causes an angular movement of the lever arm oppositely of the pivot point to actuate an external mechanism, said lever actuator being fitted beneath said lever arm and the pivotal movement of the lever actuator lifting the lever arm free of the abutment to release the cover means whereby the spring bias of the cover means moves the cover to an open position.

4. A dispensing unit in accordance with claim 3 wherein said solenoid is mounted to the rear of the container and the lever arm is disposed adjacent to the solenoid actuator to be released by the same and wherein said bracket means comprises a plate attached to the end of the pole piece oppositely of said One end thereof and extends from the point of attachment with the pole piece to and around the outside of the solenoid winding and to a point adjacent said one end of the pole piece, and wherein the pole piece, bracket and lever actuator encircle the solenoid winding during energization thereof, said pole piece, bracket, and lever actuator being formed of a magnetically conductive material thereby providing a closed flux path for the solenoid during energization thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,884,574 4/1959 Joidinger 335-276 3,132,769 5/1964 Zehrbach 222 JAMES B. MARBERT, Primary Examiner 

